Swine flu raises its ugly head, dist on the edge

Ludhiana: There has been a slight surge in swine flu cases in Ludhiana district. Besides four confirmed cases, 20 suspected cases have been reported in the past 10 days.
The health experts said as cases of swine flu are surfacing in the district, people need to take precautions.

According to the latest report, 63 swine flu cases have been reported in Ludhiana district till Monday. Till December 23, the case count was 59. In first 23 days of December, only one case had surfaced in the district.
In November 2022, four cases of swine flu had surfaced in the district.
According to the data, there were 287 suspected cases till December 23, which increased to 308 on January 2. In the first 23 days of December, just 16 suspected cases were reported.
Ludhiana civil surgeon Dr Hatinder Kaur said more cases of swine flu have surfaced as this is a flu transmission season. She said people should follow Covid-related norms including wearing of masks, avoid going to crowded places and unnecessary travelling.
Health officials said the contacts of such patients are given prophylactic treatment for 10 days. The officials said besides, health teams carry out survey of the area to ascertain whether anybody in the locality has flu-like symptoms, including high grade fever, or not.
A health expert said several swine flu cases have come to his notice in the past few days. Dr Gurpreet Singh, senior consultant and head, department of pulmonary and critical care at a city hospital, said more swine flu cases are expected in the ongoing winter season. He said there are various forms of swine flu — mild which is self-limiting disease with patients recovering in four to five days with symptomatic treatment; moderate wherein patient does have breathing problem and may need anti-viral drugs and symptomatic treatment; and severe in which mortality rate is high and patient has severe breathlessness, hypoxia (low oxygen in the body) and may need ICU admissions and ventilator support as well.
The health expert said since the mode of transmission of swine flu is same as Covid, so people need to take precautions like wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing and avoiding crowded places. He said apart from taking necessary precautions, people should get influenza vaccine which gives protection against swine flu as well.